(Recasts with police statement)
JOHANNESBURG Oct 14 (Reuters) – South African police fired
stun grenades and rubber bullets to break up a sit-in by
protesters at a police station over the weekend and arrested
more than 70 miners from a nearby Gold Fields mine,
police said.
As many as 600 miners from Gold Fields Kloof mines staged a
sit-in at Westonaria police station, about 45 km west of
Johannesburg on Friday night, police said in a statement.
After failing to disperse the protest, police said they
fired rubber bullets and stun grenades. The crowd responded by
breaking windows and causing other damage at the station.
Police said they arrested 72 miners, one of whom was
carrying a firearm.
The protesters had arrived on buses earlier in the day to
demand the release of 13 jailed miners.
In a separate incident, police fired tear gas and rubber
bullets at protesters hurling petrol bombs after a march on an
Anglo American Platinum mine in Rustenburg turned
violent late on Friday.
(Reporting by David Dolan; Editing by Alison Williams and
Pravin Char)
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